Main news for 3 August 2022

Paul draws attention to the fact that the Christian's life is directly connected with the life and person of Christ Himself, "hidden in Christ," as the apostle calls it. This is understandable: the Kingdom itself is inseparable from the relationships that bind the Son with the Father, and still more is the life of each individual Christian inseparable from them. This life is visible to the world to the extent that the Kingdom is visible to it at all, and the Kingdom opens to the world as the world is transformed. To the extent that the world is transformed, the life of the Kingdom, and therefore the life of its inhabitants, becomes visible to it; to the extent that it still remains untransformed, that life remains unknown to it. But on the day of the world's complete transformation and the Savior's return, everything that was previously invisible will become visible and plain to all, so that nothing hidden from the world will remain.

However, in order for the life of a particular Christian to be full, it must not be reduced merely to passive abiding in the Kingdom, in the space of the relationships that bind the Father and the Son. In any case, passive abiding in the Kingdom is scarcely possible at all, since the Kingdom itself exists only in continuous dynamism, insofar as every relationship is always dynamic and can exist only by being constantly renewed. But besides this external dynamism, the Christian's life must also necessarily contain an internal one, connected with spiritual renewal and the transformation of the Christian's own human nature. After full transformation, every person's nature must become the same as the Savior's human nature became after His Resurrection. But transformation is not a one-time act; it is a process connected with the person of the Savior Himself, with His life, and with the process by which the Kingdom enters the world.

The completion of the Christian's path, and therefore of the transformation of his human nature, coincides with the completion of the transformation of all the rest of nature, of all creation. And of course this path is not limited to the bounds of a person's earthly life, but continues after that life is finished. Yet it begins at the present, earthly stage of the path, and Paul describes it figuratively as a person's "stripping off" his former nature and "putting on" a new one, corresponding to the spiritual state that abiding in the Kingdom presupposes. Of course, a change in a person's physical nature is impossible at the present stage of the path, but a change in the person's psychic, soul nature is entirely possible. This is what the apostle reminds the recipients of his letter about, calling them to exclude from their life sexual immorality in all its forms, impurity, greed, anger, and everything else that is characteristic of human psychic nature in its fallen state. And if they succeed in this, then they will have taken the first step on the path toward the complete transformation of their nature, and therefore toward the fullness of the life of the Kingdom.

Continuing the discussion of spiritual life, Paul touches on the question of the Kingdom's formation in our transforming world. Of course, this theme appears in the apostle's letter not by chance, but in connection with the spiritual path of specific people who had become partakers of the Kingdom and were living in it. It is certainly no accident that he writes to the Colossian Christians that their life is hidden with God, in the same place where Christ is hidden (v. 3). When he says "hidden," the apostle uses a Greek word that designated something concealed for a time from outsiders' eyes, something that will surely be revealed when the time comes. And this hidden thing will evidently be revealed on the day of the Savior's return, when everything secret becomes manifest (v. 4). In this case, as it appears, he is speaking of that fullness of the Kingdom which will be revealed to the world only at the end of time, on the day of Christ's second coming. Until that day, the life of Christians remains for the most part unnoticed by the world, especially as regards its spiritual foundation: it is as invisible to the world that is still not transformed as the Savior Himself is invisible to it, and people who live according to the laws of this untransformed world are quite sincerely certain that He is not with us.

In such a situation, the only testimony to the reality of the Kingdom for people who have not become partakers of it remains the spiritual life of Christians in those manifestations that are visible even in our world, still not transformed. This is what Paul speaks about when he calls the Colossian Christians to think not so much about observing religious norms and rules as about the witness that is the chief task of Christians as citizens of the Kingdom being disclosed in a transforming world. That is why the apostle calls the Colossian Christians to think of heavenly things ("the things above"), and not earthly things (vv. 1-2): for they, like all Christians in general, have to live according to the laws of the Kingdom in a world that does not yet live by them. Paul describes in considerable detail and with great force what such a life means in practice (vv. 5-11), and this description allows us to understand especially well what kind of witnesses to the Kingdom the apostle wanted to see. But he also understands that witness to the Kingdom is unthinkable without the transformation of human nature itself, without "putting off" the old humanity wounded by sin and replacing it with the new, free from sin and transparent to every breath and action of God (vv. 9-10). And for this new person all earthly distinctions move into the background, so that only Christ and the Kingdom remain significant (v. 11).

In the apostolic letters one often meets the expression "to die to the world." Paul also uses it, in particular in his letter to the Colossians. Usually this expression is interpreted in an ethical or anthropological sense. It is assumed that a person who has died to the world lives by a completely different system of values compared with people of "this world."

Of course, this is also important: the Savior Himself spoke of the fact that it is impossible to serve two masters. But if the issue were only a system of values, practical ethics, even what philosophers call an existential choice, we would still remain within the boundaries and framework of "this world."

Paul, however, speaks of more. He speaks of new life, the life that does not exist for the world. A presentiment of this other life was in the world even before the coming of Christ, and not only among the biblical prophets. The prophets sensed the breath of this other life quite clearly, though from afar. Those who in the pagan world happened to catch glimpses of this other life often described it as the absence of the habitual life of "this world."

Something like what the Buddha did, when he described the Kingdom with its life, slightly opened to him for a moment, as the absence of life in its familiar earthly forms. This life, slightly and briefly opened to him, was too unlike what we are accustomed to call life. From the point of view of the fallen world, the life of the Kingdom cannot be called life. Perhaps that is why the New Testament books so often speak of death to the world.

Christ brought the Kingdom into the world, and therefore, if we are Christians, we are dead to the world; nothing of its life remains in us. But the life of the Kingdom, which is in Christ, is ours. It is hidden in Him just as the entire fullness of the Kingdom was hidden in Him until the time. But of course this hiddenness is only for a time, otherwise there would have been no reason for Him to come into our world. This means that what was hidden will one day be revealed. In all fullness.